Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-06-20
TO SAVE THE CITIES.
DIR. TALNAGB DISCOURSES ON HOW TO CURE
MUNICIPAL CORRUPTION.
An Intimate Connection Between Iniquity and Dirt
The PreSs-lniquitOus Literatus-Ths School.
Rsf6matOry Societies - The Great
Remedy, The Gospel Of Christ.
speeta! Tsleqram 70 De Reaiser.

mage read, previous to the sermon, ora.
tions Of Scripture descriptive of ancient
cities, and gave out the hymn:
"Fields are white the harvest waiting,
Who viii bear the sheaveS away"
His text was: And the men of the
city said unto Elisha, Behold, / pray thee,
the situation of this city is pleasant, as my
Lord seeth; but the water, is naught, and
the ground barren. And he said, Bring
me new cruise and put salt therein. And
he went forth unto the spring of the waters
and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus
said the Lord, have healed these waters:
there shall not be from thence any more
death or barren land. So the waters were
healed unto this day. I'll Kings, ii, 10
%. DR.. Talmage said:
1t is difficult to estimate how much OF
the prosperity and health of city are de-
pendent upon
.. GOOD WATER.
The time when, through well-laid pipes
and from a safe reservoir, an abundance of
water, from Croton, or Ridgewood, or
Schuylkill is brought into the city, is APP
prOpriately celebrated with Grafton and
pyrotechnic display. Thank God every
day for clear, bright, beautiful, sparkling
water, as it drops in shower, or toSses up
in the fountain, or rushes out at the
hydrant
The city of Jericho, notwithstanding all
its physical and commercial advantages,
was lacking in this important element
There was enough water, but it was dis =
eased, and the people were crying
out by reason thereof. Elisha
the prophet comes to the
rescue. He says: ''Get me a new cruise;
fill it with salt and bring if to me-" So the
cruise Of salt was brought to the prophet,
and see him walking out to TIE general
reservoir, and he takes that saltand throws
it into the reservoir and 10! all the i'm
purities depart, through a supernatural
and divine influence, and the waters are
good and fresh and clear, and all the peO-
pie clap their hands and lift up their voices
in the gladness. Water for Jericho-clear,
bright, beautiful, God-given water!
AT different times have pointed out to
You the fountains of
MUNICIPAL CORRUPTION,
and this morning | propose to show you
what are the means for the rectification OF
those fountains There are four or five
kinds of salt that have a cleansing ten
dency. So far as God may help me, shall
bring a cruise of salt to the work, and
empty it into the great reservoir of NUM-
cipal crime, sin, and shame, Ignorance and
abOminatiOn.
In this work OF cleansing our cities. |
have first to remark, that there is work
| for the broom and the shovel that nothing
else can do. There always has been an
intimate connection between iniguity and
dirt. The filthy parts of the great cities
are always the most iniquitOus parts.
The CUTTERS and the pavements of the
! Fourth ward. New York, illustrate and
symbolic the character of the people in
the Fourth ward.
The first thing that a bad man does
when he is converted is thoroughly to
wash himself. There were, this morning,
on the way to the different churches,
thousands Of men in proper apparel who,
before their conversion, were unfit in their
Sabbath dress. When on the Sabbath
see man uncleanly in his dress, my sus,
picions in regard to his moral character
are aroused, and they are always well
! founded. So as to allow no
excuse for lack of ablution, God
has cleft the continents with
rivers and lakes, and has sunk five great
oceans, and all the world ought to be
clean. Away, then, with the dirt from
our cities, not only because the physical
health needs an ablutiOn, but because all
the great moral and religious interests oI
the cities demand it as positive necessity
| A filthy city always has been and always
will be wicked city.
Through the upturning of the earth foI
great improvement onr city could not bt
expected to be rs clean as usual, but fOl
the illimitahle dirt of Brooklyn for the
last six months there can be no excuse,
It is not merely matter of dust in the
ewes. and mud for the shoes, and of stencil
for the nostrils, but of morals for the soul
Another correctlve influence that WI
would bring to bear upon the evils of on
great cities is
4 CHRISTIAN PRINTIEG-PRESS.
The newspapers of any phase are tn,
test of morality or immortality. Th,
newsboy who runs along the street with |
roll of papers under his arm is q tremen
dous force that cannot be turned aside no
resisted, and at his every step the city i
elevated or degraded. This hungry, all
deyouring American mind must havt
something to read, and upon editors anC
authors and boOk-publishers and parent
and teachers rests the responsibility o
what they shall read Almost every maj
Won meet has a book in his hand or ;
newspaper in his pocket. What book i
il Won have in your hand What news
paper is it you have in your pocket? Min
isters may preach, retormers may plan
philantropists may toll for the elevation
of the suffering and the criminal, but un
til all the news. papers of the land and al
the booksellers Of the land set themselve
lacainst an iniquitous literature-unti
then we shall be fighting against feartu
odds. Every time the cylinder OF on
great publishing houses turn, they max
tine earth quake. From them goes fort
!, n thought like an angel Of light to iee'
and bless the world, or like an angel O
darkness to smite it with corruption ant
sin and shame and death. May God b.
His omnipotent Spirit purify and elevat
the American printing-preSs.
I 20 on Iurther and say that we must de
, pend upon
THE SCHOOL
for great deal of correcting influence
Community can no more afford to have ig
norant men in its midst than it can affor
to have uncaged hyenas. Ignorance Is tn
mother of hydra-headed crime. Thirty-on
per cent. of all the criminals Of New ior
/. State can neither read nor write. Int
lectual darkness is generally the precursC
. of moral darkness know there are edu
Gated outlaws-men who, through thel
sharpness of intellect, are made more dar
, perous. They use their fine penmanshi
! in signing other peoples names, and the
) science in ingenious burgiaries, and the
fine manners in adroit libertinism. The
| 90 their round of sin with well cut AZ
Sarel, and dangling jewelry, and watcht
Of eighteen karats, and kid loves. The
are refined, educated, magnificent villain:
Rut that is the exception. 1t IS general
? the case that the criminal classes are as Il
,.-,,t "a thsv are wicked. For the pr0C